Colloidal silica compositions have been used for a long time, e.g. as a coating material to improve adhesive properties and increase wear and water resistance of various materials. However, these compositions, especially highly concentrated colloidal silica compositions, are liable to gelling or precipitation of silica, which considerably shortens the storage time.
WO01/87788 discloses a method of providing a silica glass coating comprising a cellulose-based binder and silica sols. However, such coating compositions cannot be stably dispersed for a long period of time which often necessitate immediate use thereof.
It would be desirable to provide a stable and highly concentrated colloidal silica dispersion for inter alia coating applications which can be easily stored and transported without any initial precipitation, and that can be used in applications requiring improved adhesive properties, wear resistance, and/or water resistance. It would also be desirable to provide a convenient and inexpensive method of producing such a dispersion. An object of the present invention is to provide such a stable dispersion which minimises the environmental impact without reducing the imparted effect of the dispersion.